BENSONHURST BOY EATEN BY LIONS (1914)
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The story you are about to read was composed from research conducted in the course of one of those investigations.
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Most people who hear about lions attacking, mauling, and killing human beings envision these violent scenes taking place in the natural habitat of these beasts where they roamed and hunted prey.
But the country was mystified by a story that came out a little more than 100 years ago about just such a lion assault – taking place in Chicago.
DAREDEVIL DIETRICH AND THE SIX LIONS
The son of a wealthy Bensonhurst architect, Emerson D. Dietrich was a graduate of Erasmus High School. He had lived with his parents and his three brothers at 8642 Bay Parkway until he had joined the circus just six months prior to his death.
Dietrich, it was learned, had wanted to be near the lions, of which he was fond, and so he had become the manager of Madame Adgie Castillo, the lion trainer.
Dietrich, 24, had lived a daredevil’s life, according to his father, who spoke to the Brooklyn Daily Eagle the day after the attack.
“He won medals of every sort, but he joined no society,” the elder Dietrich said, “for he was a society in himself.
“He had hundreds of friends who came to see him. He didn’t need a society. Then in 1909, he graduated and, for the first time we, his family, knew what it meant to worry about Emerson.
“He insisted for instance on swimming at Coney Island when the snow was so deep that street cars ran only once in a while.
“Then somebody invented auto polo and Emerson conceived that it was the game for him. He learned how to play it and very soon was touring the country under the name of ‘Daredevil Dietrich,’ risking his life and limbs in search of adventure.”
But when the auto polo fad died off, Dietrich met Madame Castillo and joined her in a traveling circus as her manager.
Dietrich, Sr., in the interview asked the newspaper to note that his son had not been engaged to marry the lion tamer. Likely, in order to sell papers, though, the majority of newspapers stated that the two were indeed engaged to one another.
HOW THE LIONS KILLED DIETRICH
Dietrich had been fond of Madame Castillo’s lions and was on familiar enough terms with them to have entered into their cages to feed the beasts by hand.
Upon entering, though, on the day he was killed, Dietrich had attempted to drive them back towards the corner of the freight car they were on while in Chicago. He had been playing with the eldest lion, Trilby, when, with his back turned, the youngest of them all, Teddy, began to act out.
“Teddy, behave,” shouted his assistant, George McCord, pitchfork in hand.
But within an instant, the animal had pounced upon him and had him against the bars of its cage, fastening its teeth into Dietrich’s throat and forcing him to the floor.
The smell of blood, it was said, aroused the other lions and soon they were all upon him. Although Trilby attempted to save him by stopping the others from attacking Dietrich, she was not strong enough to stop them and was pushed back by the others. Tragically, Trilby simply sat and watched the carnage as it unfolded, powerless to stop it, but not taking part in it herself.
Eventually, with the use of pikes, local firemen forced the “growling, snarling animals” back into a corner. Tossing formaldehyde onto his body to force them away from him, they eventually were able to enter the cage and the body was taken to a nearby undertaking establishment.
Dietrich’s parents had been expecting their son’s visit within the just next week. Tragically, his visit now would come in another form.
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